Industry Workshop Information

Friday, April 25, 2025
10:15 a.m.
Discovery Stage

Speakers: Alana Valenzuela, Account Executive, Harvard Bioscience; Jessica Faulkner, PhD, Assistant Professor, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University; and Dan Machin, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of New Mexico School of Medicine

Discover how you can spotlight your research and elevate your career through the DSI Dean Franklin Young Investigator Award. The award supports emerging scientists and provides a platform to navigate funding challenges and gain recognition. Facilitated by Alana Valenzuela, Harvard Bioscience, the workshop will feature two past recipients who will share their innovative cardiovascular research. Jessica Faulkner, PhD, will present her research on mechanisms of how leptin contributes to preeclampsia. Dan Machin, PhD, will discuss his research on the role of glycocalyx in vascular dysfunction. Don’t miss this chance to explore the path to career growth and research excellence!

Friday, April 25, 2025
10:15 a.m.
Innovation Stage

Speaker: Sarah Burris, PhD, Global Leader, Scientific Affairs & Applications, Fujifilm VisualSonics, Inc.

The Vevo F2 and the new LAZR-X20 are at the forefront of preclinical imaging technology, integrating advanced ultrasound and photoacoustic innovations. This next-generation system features the established modes and transducers of VisualSonics, along with new capabilities such as push-button elastography for precise tissue characterization, new cardiac strain software for groundbreaking cardiovascular analysis, and a more powerful photoacoustic laser offering a broader imaging spectrum. Ideal for research in cardiology, oncology and beyond, the Vevo F2 LAZR-X20's superior image quality, quantification tools and expansive imaging capabilities can significantly enhance your research outcomes and accelerate scientific discoveries. Join us to learn more!

Friday, April 25, 2025
12:15 p.m.
Discovery Stage

Speaker: Atul Walunj, BVSc, MVSc, MS, Professional Services Veterinarian, Kent Scientific Corporation

This talk highlights the critical influence of anesthesia carrier gas selection on rodent physiology and exploring the research outcomes during intraoperative procedures like medical device and telemetry implants or in vivo imaging under general anesthesia. The workshop aims to educate the researchers how the choice of carrier gas can influence pathophysiological outcomes, thereby introducing potential variables affecting data quality, reproducibility, and translational relevance. The presentation encourages transparent reporting of carrier gas details and to empower researchers to make judicious, evidence-based carrier gas decisions for improved study integrity.

Friday, April 25, 2025
12:15 p.m.
Innovation Stage

Speaker: Frazer Findlay, CEO, BIOPAC Systems, Inc.

This workshop will present BIOPAC's new rodent pup environmental control chamber for the collection of wireless physiological data from rodents as young as six days after birth. The chamber is an extension of the cutting-edge wireless, implantable EPOCH system, which is built for long-term monitoring of physiological data in small animals. The system offers unparalleled advantages in terms of sensor size, mobility and data transmission, allowing up to six months of continuous, real-time monitoring of rodents. The talk will explore the hardware options available with the EPOCH system, the new chamber, and the surgical implantation methodology, and will provide both manual and video instructional documentation. Sample data sets will be viewed, specifically in the context of seizure detection. Researchers in the field will find valuable insights to advance their studies in long-term monitoring of small rodent EEG.

Friday, April 25, 2025
4:15 p.m.
Discovery Stage

Speakers: Julia Hum, PhD, Associate Professor, Marian University

Julia Hum, PhD, will demonstrate how to create custom multimodal teaching modules using the Ditki Medical & Biological Sciences educational platform. The aim of this platform is to increase physiology student engagement and understanding of complex renal physiology topics, and to let instructors meet their course objectives and track student progress. Hum will walk learners through a stepwise approach that provides students with an interactive curriculum integrating both learning and assessment phases.

Friday, April 25, 2025
4:15 p.m.
Innovation Stage

Speakers: David Nickerson, PhD, Associate Professor, Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland and Peter Hunter PhD, FRS, FRSNZ, Distinguished Professor, Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland

The SPARC Portal collects data and knowledge relevant to the role of the peripheral nervous system in systems physiology and makes it available in an accessible and interactive portal. Detailed and highly curated connectivity knowledge underpins much of the exploration enabled by the SPARC Portal. In this session, we will demonstrate how to use the SPARC Portal and related tools to explore and discover data and knowledge relevant to your own endeavours and how to contribute your own data and knowledge to this open repository.

Saturday, April 26, 2025
10:15 a.m.
Discovery Stage

Speaker: Catherine A. Johnson, MA, Director, Educational Strategy & Academic Engagement, Elsevier

Are you overwhelmed with too many technology tools? As educators, you are at the forefront of innovation in medicine, continually developing creative ways to inspire and equip future clinicians. Similarly, Elsevier is committed to advancing education technology, ensuring that your passion for teaching is matched by accessible, cutting-edge tools. Through synergies between platforms such as ClinicalKey and Osmosis, we deliver unparalleled resources designed to enhance learning, streamline access to critical knowledge and support students and professionals. Combined with the publications you trust and use, our solutions aim to empower you in shaping the next generation of health care leaders.

Saturday, April 26, 2025
10:15 a.m.
Innovation Stage

Speaker: Daniela Oettler, PhD, Scientific Director North America, TSE Systems

In today's scientific environment, with potential National Institutes of Health budget cuts and unstable funding, competition for resources is increasing, threatening scientific progress. This presentation demonstrates how our solutions for rodents to monkeys, housed individually or in groups, enhance research by producing consistent and reliable behavioral data. Automatized home cage testing maximizes data quality, results from each individual animal, and animal welfare while saving time and resources. Join us for an interactive session to explore these advancements in a single experimental setup. Our complementary technologies measure physiological parameters (e.g., temperature, cardiovascular function, EEG), activity and other behavioral and metabolic parameters.

Saturday, April 26, 2025
12:15 p.m.
Discovery Stage

Speaker: Susan Tappan, PhD, Communications, SPARC DRC and Peter Hunter PhD, FRS, FRSNZ, Distinguished Professor, Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland

Understanding how the brain controls and coordinates the function of peripheral organs—such as the heart, lungs and digestive system—has been a long-standing challenge in neuroscience and physiology. The complexity of the networks involved in autonomic and somatic control makes it difficult to comprehensively analyze the intricate relationships between different systems.

This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes into play. Using deep learning methods to screen peer-reviewed literature is one method we use to establish SCKAN, our semantic store housing a comprehensive knowledge base of autonomic nervous system and peripheral nervous system nerve to end organ connectivity for the SPARC Portal. Join this session to see how SCKAN is built, and how you and your research data can be incorporated to power large language models for nonhallucinating query.

Saturday, April 26, 2025
12:15 p.m.
Innovation Stage

Speaker: Sadi Loai, PhD, Product Manager, Scintica

Contrast agents play a crucial role in advancing research and medicine by enhancing the clarity and detail of imaging modalities such as MRI, ultrasound, CT and optical imaging. From diabetes to cancer, contrast agents improve the visualization of tissues, blood vessels and pathological processes, enabling more accurate diagnosis and treatment planning.

In MRI, contrast agents highlight soft tissue differences, while in CT, they enhance the visibility of vascular structures and organs. Ultrasound contrast agents improve blood flow imaging, and optical agents enable real-time molecular imaging.

By providing precise, noninvasive insights into complex biological systems, contrast agents are revolutionizing disease detection, therapy monitoring and personalized medicine.

Saturday, April 26, 2025
4:15 p.m.
Discovery Stage

Speakers: Michael Zhan, Marketing Director, Chengdu Techman Co., Ltd

AI is transforming every aspect of our lives and is bound to bring about a huge revolution in the research and teaching of physiology. TECHMAN, founded in 1998, is a professional developer and manufacturer of physiological research software and instruments. This workshop will introduce the next-generation data acquisition system, which brings the most efficient and flexible experiment tool to enhance your research and teaching works.

Join us for the opportunity to apply for a software/instrumentation trial for any of the below technology categories:

• Animal physiology experiment instrument
• Human physiology experiment instrument
• Animal behavior analysis system
• Animal experiment equipment
• Virtual online experiment

Saturday, April 26, 2025
4:15 p.m.
Innovation Stage

Speaker: David Julian, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Florida

JustPhysiology is an online human physiology simulation spanning cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, endocrine, metabolic and integrative systems. Students control simulations and observe relationships among hundreds of variables to investigate normal physiology and pathophysiology. In this workshop, participants will learn to design simulation exercises that illuminate how body systems function, adapt and compensate in health and disease. Attendees will explore new patient-population features that enable students to apply statistical approaches, test hypotheses and investigate clinical treatment options in virtual experiments. Join us to discover strategies for integrating JustPhysiology into your curriculum to enhance engagement and promote dynamic, data-driven learning.